In the mixed zone, however, most of Kessel’s teammates did a fairly good impression of No. 81 in his Maple Leaf post-game mode — blowing mutely by a throng of reporters and disappearing into the inner sanctum of an Olympic dressing room where the media is barred.

Twenty-four hours earlier, their women-folk had been just as crushed in the gold-medal loss to Canada. But they’d manned up, however tearfully, to address a late-minutes collapse of epic proportions.

A few were coaxed back for the verbal post-mortem. And their indisposition to speak was understandable, of course. The top-seeded U.S. squad had generally imposed its will on opponents throughout the hockey tournament here, but for the shoot-out win against Russia, high-flying and high-scoring and imperious.

They were keen to do in Friday’s semi-final what the Canadians had done to them four years ago in the final: Make them eat dirt. And if the re-match had come one game early — a slightly premature marquee encounter — it certainly felt like the gold medal deal, with the 1-0 outcome just as clanging in its abruptness.

There will be no Olympic redemption for the Yanks, though bronze is still on the table — if North American NHLers can be made to appreciate the worthiness of a third-place finish.

Monosyllabic Kessel, shortly to return to his labours on Toronto’s top line, had been the offensive stud of the hockey tournament here. Certainly American coach Dan Bylsma had striven to find time and space for Kessel to manoeuver and exploit his wind-burn thrust against Canada.

“I thought Phil Kessel was going, and we tried to get him as many opportunities as we could to give us a chance. He had a couple there in the first but we weren’t able to find that goal.”

Wearing Jonathan Toews as a harassing and smothering shadow for much of the evening, Kessel accounted for four of the 31 shots that cool-as-a-cucumber Carey Price turned aside. Deftness on his feet helped Kessel avert the thumps attempted on him, at least until six-foot-three Corey Perry lined him up for a wallop, tipping him right into Canada’s bench with three minutes left in regulation.

“A lot of teams sit back on the big ice,” said U.S. defenceman Brooks Orpik. “They didn’t sit back, that’s for sure.”

Canada guarded their lead vigilantly but never looked unafraid to take risks, precisely because of the faith that had developed in defensive prowess, boxing out and blocking shots.

“We didn’t get too many second opportunities,” noted rearguard Ryan McDonagh, who was similarly gutsy diving in front of shots.

James van Riemsdyk: “We just didn’t capitalize on our chances. I thought we had some decent looks and their goalie made some good saves. We had some close calls. That’s how hockey is.”

It was a grubwork affair, for all the speed on display, and that didn’t suit free-wheeling opportunists such as Kessel, certainly not when the Americans were being furiously back-checked, repeatedly bottled up in the defensive zone as they struggled to break out on the attack that has served them so well. Canada’s big forwards were able to keep the puck down low with territorial possession, wearying U.S. players on the cycle.

And the Americans found themselves without a counter-punch to booming shots from Shea Weber and Jay Bouwmeester, which created rebounds and havoc around the crease. That netminder Jonathan Quick — and quick he was too, navigating his way through the horde — surrendered just the one goal was testament to his puck-stopping virtuosity. But you can’t win if you can’t score, and the Canadian side as a seamless defence-first entity didn’t let that happen.

One-nothing, as close as it gets, though there will be no solace in it.

“You have to line up the moon and the stars to win,” triumphant bench-boss Mike Babcock observed. “People don’t believe that in Canada, but it’s the facts.”

David Backes — his formidable job was containing Sidney Crosby — did stop for a lengthy exposition about what had gone wrong. He was asked: “Did you expect that kind of a slog?”

Now, Backes is among the most intelligent of hockey players but the word perplexed him. “I don’t know what a slog is.”

Explanation was provided.

“They played that grinding kind of a game better than we did and the result is a 1-0 game. My line was on the ice for that one goal so I feel some real responsibility for that. Unfortunately, we didn’t react enough to get that one back.”

While Price’s mates gave the goalie full chops for the outcome, Backes was qualified in his appraisal. No, he didn’t get the sense that Price’s confidence soared as the match wore on, the Canadians doggedly protecting a one-goal lead from early in the second period.

“Not really. They played real well but we didn’t do enough to get traffic in front of him to find second and third chances. We’ve been scoring goals all around that paint the whole tournament. We didn’t do that tonight. The result is that he sees a lot of pucks and catches them, kills plays, gets faceoffs. We don’t get that sustained zone-time that we need to create goals and he gets the goose-egg.

“They came at us with a lot of pressure on the penalty-kill,” Backes continued. “We didn’t have a response for that, tried to be cute when we had to play harder, really get into a grind game, play a 5-on-5 mentality. We didn’t do that, got cute, and they sent it down the ice time after time and we had to break it out again.”

The Americans were 0-for-3 on the power play.

“We had an awesome opportunity,” Backes added regretfully. “I don’t think we laid it all on the line the way we needed to. A 1-0 game against your rival country, it’s a sour taste for sure.”

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Price was savouring the sweetness.

The Montreal Canadiens’ masked man has been preternaturally calm between the pipes, either because or despite the fact he never had to wrest the job from returning Olympian Roberto Luongo.

Even in the frenzied atmosphere of this do-or-die encounter, he never appeared rattled.

“We were really blessed to win that game tonight. I’ve got a lot of confidence in that group in front of me.”

Price pointed to his D-men as key contributors to the shutout. “They all know how to play in tough situations and feel comfortable being uncomfortable.”

That phrase really does sum it up best. While fans back in Canada were chewing their nails at the prospect of confronting this powerful American team, the guys in red-black-and-white stuck patiently with the game-plan that had brought them this far. It did help immensely that Price was able to see just about every puck that came in his direction.

You saw everything?

“That defensive group in front of me, they were boxing guys out and letting me have my eyes. Our forwards back-checked really hard, I think that was the difference.”

The Canadians came in with a warrior mentality.

“You’re willing to do anything for the guy standing beside you,” said Price.

More than Team USA perhaps, the Canadians had anticipated a low-scoring, close-in game.

Mused Price: “If we were to think about that result and visualize it at the start of the day, I’d say mission accomplished.”

But what of the game-winning puck for his shutout?

“No, I didn’t get it tonight. I don’t know where it went.”

Not behind him.

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